‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 6

Well, it’s New Year’s Eve and I have to say that my day today was quite relaxing.  I got up fairly late this morning and watched “Dr. Phil” shortly after Heather left for work because she got called in for the day today.  I went downstairs after “Dr. Phil” and did some things and then decided it was a good time to watch “Iron Man” on Blu Ray.  It is a really good movie and was even better on the nice clear Blu Ray disc.  It was awesome and was just as good as being in the movie theater!  I got done watching that and then played PS3 for about three hours this afternoon.  In the meantime, the kids took a nap and then woke up and helped Heather shovel some snow here and then at Marsha’s (Heather’s seamstress’ house) and then they tried to find some wine for tonight, but came up empty and came home.  She then started getting things ready for New Year’s Eve tonight and we retreated to the basement and watched T.V. and had some family time waiting for the ball to drop while we pigged out on some of my wife’s best food including veggies and dip, chips and dip, chicken wings, stuffed shells, shrimp and cocktail sauce, cheeseball and crackers and other variuous stuff.  We waited for the ball to drop and wished each other a Happy New Year and then headed off to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Chapter 6 of “Star Wars:  the Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 5

Well, it’s Tuesday and it is the second day of my vacation.  A bummer for my wife as she had to go back to work this morning.  But not me and I had another wonderfully relaxing day today!  I got up later this morning by sleeping in and I got up and watched “Dr. Phil” and the kids did some work around the house.  I got some things done as well, including putting away some of my own Christmas gifts and trying to get my computer to work.  Well, my laptop is now on the mends again because the DVD reader has stopped reading yet again!  So, we ended up calling “Computer Emergency Room” and had them order a part for the laptop and hopefully they’ll be able to fix it sometime just after the new year.  I got done taking care of that and did some things around the house and Heather showed up from work.  We ate some lunch together and then got on the road to do some things for tomorrow night.  So, we got on the road and went over to “Maines” and got some shrimp and party poppers for New Year’s Eve.  We then headed over to Aldi’s to get some more food and then headed out to “Fat Cat Books” and I got to shop with my Fat Cat Bucks.  It was cool and I got lots of awesome mini’s including an Anakin Skywalker, a Bariss Offee, Aayla Secura Jedi General, Han Solo, among many others that were cool.  We then stopped at Lowe’s on our way home and got some track lighting with some of the money we got for Christmas at Lowe’s and put it above the computer desk in the living room and I have to say that it looks nice.  We got home and put the food away and Heather and I hung up the track lighting by working together and did a pretty good job with it, especially considering we got it done in an hour.  I then helped Heather get dinner together and we all ate dinner as a family.  Then Heather and I went downstairs and I worked on some things while we watched some T.V. and then put in the movie “50 First Dates” and hung out for the rest of the evening.  After a while, we went to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Chapter 5 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 4 (Part 5)

Well, it’s Monday and I have to say that I had a pretty lazy day today.  I got up around nine o’clock or so to watch “Dr. Phil” and Heather got up with me.  After a while, we both went downstairs and Heather watched some T.V. while working on things for her seamstress and I played some Call of Duty 4 on the PS3.  I hate to say it, but time got away from me and before I knew it, we were beyond lunch and almost at dinner time.  Before I even came out of my hovel downstairs, it was not about four o’clock and I decided to check up on the family.  I came upstairs and spent some time with Heather as she made dinner.  Then we ate dinner as a family and I watched our usual after dinner T.V. shows and then watched “Big Bang Theory” among some other shows and then Heather and I went to bed.  Tonight, we put on our bed our new sheets we got from my brother and sister in-law and they are VERY nice sheets.  Over 500 thread count and they feel almost like silk.  Tomorrow we are going shopping for food for New Year’s Eve and also are going to Fat Cat Books to get some stuff with my Fat Cat Bucks that I got for Christmas.  Yeah!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 5 of Chapter 4 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 4 (Part 4)

Okay, it’s Sunday and it’s the last day of travel for this vacation.  We got up really early this morning because my parents are STILL going to the earliest church service at the Webster Presbyterian Church and I have to say that it’s a little too early for me!  We had to get up around six-fifteen this morning just to get ready for church.  I got a little bit of a better sleep last night, but I’m still exhausted.  We got up and got the kids up and got ourselves ready for church.  My mom was a little upset with me because I insisted the kids have a piece of toast before church.  She insisted they could make it through the church service and then eat, but I know my kids and they needed to eat something, so they made their own toast anyway.  We went to church and had a nice intimate church service and everyone was excited to see Heather, the kids, and myself and then we went to downtown Webster to “Golden Boys” Restaurant.  My parents treated us all to breakfast.  We got done with breakfast and came back to mom and dad’s house and we ran into all sorts of problems.  Most of Webster was without power, but luckily they had power.  Then there was the wind storm that was ripping trees down and all sorts of problems all over the county.  But I took a quick nap and then Heather decided to take a longer nap.  I watched the Bills game with my dad and it was the weirdest game I’ve ever watched as the wind made the conditions there very interesting.  Heather got up from her nap and we had dinner with my parents and then packed up the car and got on the road.  We got home around six o’clock this evening and we helped the kids unpack all their toys and unpackage them all and put them away.  We relaxed for a little bit and then went to bed early tonight.  It’s been a long week and it was nice to just be in our bed for the first time in a while.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 4 of Chapter 4 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes……

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 4 (Part 3)

It’s Saturday and in the Crissman household that is now in Rochester, NY, it was THIRD CHRISTMAS!!!  Trust me, the children were not arguing with this concept in the least.  I woke up frustrated because my stomach bug had not gone away and I really am starting to get irked.  So, Heather and I ended up getting up early this morning and she took off to CVS to get some Kaopectate to try and solve the problem.  The kids got up fairly early and my brother and his family showed up shortly thereafter.  We waited for Heather and then we opened the pile that looked like Santa’s sleigh had crashed in my parents’ family room.  The kids got some really nice gifts.  Tara got a whole bunch of “Hannah Montana” stuff, Ruth got a whole bunch of “High School Musical” stuff, and Austin got a whole bunch of “Star Wars” stuff.  I got some nice things, but also managed to get some doubles.  I got a Rams tie from my brother that he gave to me last year, and my parents got me the “Star Wars: Vault” book, but I had bought that particular book some time ago.  So, I’ll have some things to try and return after Christmas this year.  They gave me some books that were cool and I even got a nice recharging station for my bedroom.  It was a nice day as my brother and I talked school “shop” talk and we had a nice dinner and the kids all had fun.  I’ll admit that I took a bit of a nap today and we all watched “A Very, Merry Muppet Christmas” and had some fun today.  We ate a dinner of ham, green been casserole, and scalloped potatoes.  It was late until my brother and his family decided to leave and it was just a great day overall.  Tomorrow would be another travel day, but it would be the last one for quite some time.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 4 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 4 (Part 2)

It’s Friday, the end of the week, and it’s another travel day for the Crissman household.  We all got up around nine o’clock this morning and finished getting things together.  We got on the road by about ten o’clock this morning.  We had some things we wanted to do before we left Binghamton, so went over to Wal Mart, stopped at Target and Circuit City and then the mall.  We then decided to go to Wegmans and get subs for lunch before getting on the road.  We then traveled to Rochester and ran into some interesting weather on our way through Syracuse.  It was a mix of something between snow and freezing rain.  It made the roads slick, but we made it through and got to the Thruway and ran into no problems on the Thruway.  We got to the Rochester exit off the Thruway and there was a HUGE line of cars trying to get off the Thruway and, as always, Rochester only had two tollbooths open.  Figures!  We finally got onto 490 and got to Webster.  We had a great time visiting with Grammy and Papa and dad and I went over to Irondequiot to get some pizza and wings for dinner.  We had a great time eating dinner and talking at night.  We were exhausted and my father made a suggestion for tomorrow to solve my problem with my diahrea that doesn’t seem like it’s going away.  We had a long day with travel and we watched “A Muppet’s Christmas Carol” and then we all went to bed.  Tomorrow was going to be our third Christmas of the week!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 2 of Chapter 4 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 4 (Part 1)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!  Well, it somehow didn’t feel totally like Christmas today.  I think it’s just because we opened gifts last night and not this morning.  Not that it’s bad, it’s just change.  I didn’t sleep well last night at my undisclosed location, so I ended up sleeping in later than I normally would.  I got up and had very little for breakfast.  I hung out for a while and then decided to take another nap.  I had to do this because whatever this bug is that I have, it seems to take a lot of my energy right out of me!  I got up from my nap and hung out with the unknown people at the undisclosed location that I was at.  The kids had a blast because they went outside and played in the snow.  We had a good time and even ate a nice Christmas dinner.  My “other” problem with my illness still continues and I can’t seem to shake it.  We stayed until about six o’clock at the undisclosed location and then we traveled home.  We got back to the house by about eight o’clock or so and we unpacked and repacked to get ready to leave tomorrow.  Heather went downstairs to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”, while I went downstairs and watched “Mythbusters” and then we went to bed together and were exhausted.  Tomorrow was another day of traveling.  This time it was to my parents’ house to celebrate Christmas.  My kids love this concept because they actually get to celebrate THREE Christmases.  But, it ends up being weary on Heather and I.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 4 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 3 (Part 4)

Okay, it’s Christmas Eve and Heather had to get up to go to work.  But, the kids and I actually got a chance to sleep in.  I got up around nine o’clock and watched Dr. Phil while the kids watched some T.V. upstairs and then we got together and started to finish packing things for the trip.  I’m still not out of the woods with this illness I had on Monday, because I still have diarrhea from the illness.  It’s a little annoying and I have to say that it’s going to make traveling interesting.  We worked until Heather got home and then we finalized some things and Heather and I took a small nap and then we got on the road.  We took it slow going to our undisclosed location.  We got there and changed for a Christmas Eve service and then celebrated Christmas with unknown people by opening gifts at the undisclosed location.  We went to bed really late because of the celebration at where we were at.  Tomorrow was Christmas day and we would still be at our undisclosed location.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 4 of Chapter 3 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 3 (Part 3)

Well, it’s Tuesday and it’s the last day of school before Christmas break.  I got up this morning and felt much better than I did last night.  I can’t explain it, but somehow I was able to make it through the night and actually got enough sleep to not be totally grumpy today.  I was excited because today we were celebrating Christmas at our house and I was more excited about giving Heather her gifts than I was about receiving my own gifts.  But, I’ll get to that in a little bit.  Let’s talk about the start of my day.  I got up this morning and got the kids going and myself going.  We were in a pretty cheery mood and I have to say it started my day off on the right foot, which was important to me.  My babysitter got to our house on time and I was able to get off to work on time and the kids were able to take off to school on time.  I got to work and set things up for the day.  I was taking it a little easy on my classes since most of them were ahead of task.  For my eighth graders, we took our latest test on “Jazz” and then watched “Shrek the Halls”; my seventh graders did audio intervals with me and then watched a little bit of “Elf”; and my one sixth grade class watched “American Idol:  Season 7”, and my other sixth grade class was still doing it’s behavior sheets.  I got done with my school day and came home and found out that Austin was experiencing the same symptoms at school today that I experienced last night.  So, I got home and we prepared for Christmas out our house.  Heather had brought the gifts upstairs and we were all ready and we then went into the mass chaos!  Everyone was excited about what they got.  Ruth was REALLY excited about getting her MP3 Player, Tara was beside herself about getting her Aayla Secura Starfighter, and Austin loved all of his battle droids.  I got $75 in “Fat Cat Bucks” to spend at “Fat Cat Books”, which is AWESOME and I also got my Star Wars Postal pictures back fully framed, I got some nice polo shirts, a really nice bath robe that is really plush.  It was a good night overall.  We got done opening gifts and then had some leftovers for dinner while I worked on things like downloading things for Ruth’s MP3 player among other things.  It was a great night!  BUT, we had to get packed because tomorrow, we would be leaving to go to an undisclosed location to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  But, we had to get clothes together and get a majority of things get packed.  We got done with that and then we all decided to go to bed.  It was a long and fun night.  Tomorrow, we hit the road, but Heather had to go to work first!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 3 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Decption, A Clone Wars Novel” by Steven Barnes…..

‘Star Wars: The Cestus Deception, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 3 (Part 2)

It’s Monday, and I have to say that I really didn’t want to have to go to work today.  But, it was Monday and my school district has school today and tomorrow while the other half of the state does not.  I don’t think it’s fair, but then again, life is probably not always fair.  I got up this morning and got myself going along with the kids.  The kids are really excited because two of my kids have Christmas parties this afternoon, so they were excited about getting ready for those.  I managed to calm them all down enough to get ready for school and my babysitter arrived on time and I was off to work and the kids were off to school on time.  I got to work and things were interesting to say the least.  The kids were all fired up, and we had quite a few absent throughout the day today.  I figure it’s mostly students who were traveling for the holidays and needed to leave early.  I managed to get through my day with my students.  It was not a bad day overall considering I had them doing theory work and I’m sure their mind wasn’t on the work that we were doing at all.  I got done with my school day and came home to a house full of wound-up kids and a mother that was on a tirade.  Heather was furious that Austin was not doing his chores yet again!  He was doing the chores, but not effectively and considering he was in charge of cleaning the dishes, he was putting all of our lives at risk.  There were several arguments that ensued and push came to shove and Austin eventually went to bed without any dinner and didn’t go to Boy Scouts.  I, on the other hand, had the weirdest experience tonight.  I got home from work and was extremely cold and for some reason, I could not warm up.  I got through dinner and after dinner I started getting scared.  I had on two pairs of pants, three shirts, two sweatshirts and I was still so cold, I had to turn on a space heater and face it at my face to get any semblance of comfort ability.  I managed to struggle through the night and just was freezing.  It was so bad, I had to try to convince Heather to take the dog out and go to bed early with me.  We went to bed and I was shivering most of the night.  I didn’t have a fever, but I can tell you that by about 2:30 in the morning, something changed and I was no longer cold and seemed a little more comfortable.  I was just hoping I had enough patience and was able to make it through work tomorrow because I’m not allowed to call out sick the day before a major vacation like this without some serious problem.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 2 of Chapter 3 of “Star Wars:  The Cestus Deception” by Steven Barnes…..